LYNWOOD, Calif.—The coroner’s office Feb. 6 confirmed the identities of two of the three people killed in a multi-vehicle crash Sunday in Lynwood.
Flavio Balderas was a 60-year-old Compton resident and James Griffin was a 20-year-old resident of Los Angeles, the coroner’s office said.
Dozens of people gathered at the crash site Feb. 5 to hold a vigil and mourn the deaths of three people, ABC7 reported.
Relatives told reporters at the scene that Flavio Balderas and his wife Micaela were returning home from a quinceanera when their vehicle was struck by a speeding vehicle. Micaela Balderas died at a hospital, relatives said. The coroner’s office had not yet confirmed her identity.
Griffin was a passenger in the speeding vehicle, FOX11 reported.
The drama began in South Gate when a police officer saw what he believed was a catalytic converter theft in progress, the station reported. That’s when the would-be thief fled the scene, prompting a police pursuit.
Channel 7 reported the crash happened just after the pursuit was stopped because conditions were too dangerous.
Firefighters and paramedics were dispatched at 2:10 a.m. Sunday to State Street and Tweedy Boulevard in Lynwood, according to a Los Angeles County Fire Department dispatcher, who said paramedics rushed two people to a hospital.
One person died at a hospital and two people died at the crash scene, according to a watch commander at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Century station. The sheriff’s department was handling the crash investigation.
The condition of a second hospitalized person was not immediately known.
The crash involved multiple vehicles with a person possibly trapped inside a vehicle, according to sources at the scene.
